At Heritage, we believe that education is an important part of the estate planning process. On this blog we will be sharing some information, articles, and opinions that you may find helpful along your way.

Long Term

01/19/2015

An attorney testified Wednesday that he found no rules in the Oklahoma Veteran Department’s handbook to prevent seven workers from accepting bequests from the estate of a resident at the Norman Veterans Center. The longtime employees were fired in 2013, more than three years after veteran Bill Marshall died, leaving the workers some money in his will.

When gifting and company policies collide, the rules can be hard to decipher on what's fair for those types of bequests.

A man who lived in a Norman, Oklahoma veterans center left six center employees gifts in his will, likely attempting to thank the employees for their kindness and companionship. The employees were fired for accepting the gifts, despite the fact that the director of the veterans facility said that they could do so without repercussion. However, when a new director came in and found out about the gifts, the employees were fired.

The employees are suing for their jobs back.

The veterans center has a policy that employees cannot accept gifts from patients. The employees argue that since the gifts were by will, the man was no longer a resident at the time that the gifts were made. Recently, the general counsel for Oklahoma's Veterans Department testified that he could find no provision in the rules that would prevent the employees from accepting the gifts.

Residents often do grow close to employees and want to leave them something. The lesson to be learned is that before rewriting your will, you should consult with the facility and an experienced estate planning attorney to see if policy allows you to leave anything to facility employees.

To properly prepare your will and avoid problems similar to these, contact Heritage.

07/12/2014

New studies are providing more current cost estimates. “What we found was shocking,” Mandell said. “This is a huge hit on families.”

The costs to care for a child with special needs is on the rise, as reported in a new study in the medical journal JAMA Pediatric. The study found that the total lifetime cost of supporting an individual with an ASD is $1.4 million in the U.S.—with an added intellectual disability, the total rises to $2.4 million. Reuters recently reported on this study and its findings in an article titled "Raising an Autistic Child: Coping With the Costs."

These costs typically include an ongoing mix of special education programs, medical care, and lost wages as many parents of autistic children reduce their work hours or even quit their jobs to help their child full-time. The organization Autism Speaks estimates that it now takes roughly $60,000 annually to support someone with an ASD. Such costs can be so prohibitive that many affected families will move to states that offer a better collection of services.

The original article advises parents not to automatically think they must drop out of the workforce to manage their child’s case full-time. It is the natural human instinct to want to do so. No one knows a child and his or her needs like a parent, and navigating the morass of city, state and federal services can be a full-time job. However, if a parent drops out of the workforce, just as out-of-pocket expenses start to mount up, it can become very challenging financially.

The article urges families to take a long-term view of caregiving. In some situations it might be more advantageous for mom to stay in the workforce, and then hire additional support to provide case-management services. An attorney well-versed in special needs issues can be an indispensable aid in this area.